Ethanol E-85
Our Fact Finder team has learned that when it comes to ethanol blend fuel and small engines, consumers need to pay attention to the percent of ethanol in the gas.
“It'll take a long time to do any effect on it as long as you don't go over 10 percent. But if you go to the E-85 it's chaos, the engine's done,” said Raymond White, owner of White’s Lawnmower Parts and Service.
Fact Finder has learned that E-85 is not safe for use in small engines because the higher percentage of ethanol in the fuel has an adverse effect on some parts of the engine.
“Most all the small engines have some sort of o-ring or diaphragm in them. So what it does is stretches them out and that way then they won't work,” said White.
White says if you mistakenly fill up your small engine with E-85 fuel the best thing you can do is to empty it out as quickly as possible. He recommends that you then fill up with regular fuel and run the engine for awhile to make sure all the E-85 fuel gets cleaned out.
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